Tag: home

In our office, we have this one weird wall that’s been missing something. We try to keep the space creative and fun, which we hope will reflect in the work we do.

As Adam does most of his writing there, he has one wall full of whiteboards, bulletin boards with notes and quotes pinned, and posters from some of his favorite bands.

The wall opposite that has served as an often-rotating canvas, full of some of my photos from abroad and random assortment of other things we liked. Even after almost three years of living here, we never really put that much effort into that wall, though I’ve been wanting to do a funky and fun gallery wall for almost as long.

When Jennifer, with Modern Map Art, reached out to me about her San Diego art print, I was so excited! Finally, that wall would have a focal point and I could begin making something fun out of it.

When I visited the website, I loved how many options there were.

In addition, each of these beautiful maps is available in five different sizes: 8×10, 12×18, 16×20, 18×24 and 24×36. I talked with Adam and we decided to go with the blue and yellow one in 16×20. I wanted to make sure it was large enough to be a focal point on that wall, and I loved how bright and fun the colors were.

A little over a week after ordering, the map had arrived! It came in a large hard cardboard tube (which Maeby later stole because she thought it was a fun toy), and when I unrolled it, I was in love.

The bright blues and yellows did not disappoint and that night I got to work on our wall. I initially planned to order a frame (and still will in the coming weeks), but I was so excited to get this map up that for now, I have it hung with some white binder clips and push pins. It took me awhile to figure out what to put up there with it, but since I wanted the wall to be a culmination of things Adam and I love, I knew it would be a nice collection of photos, musical pieces, and other miscellaneous items.

On the wall, we have:

Two canvas prints – One Adam’s friend did a loooooong time ago and one I made when I first moved here

Three framed photos – One of me and my teammates from college, one of two of our best friends, and one of Adam and his friends from when he first moved out here

A large print from my time abroad

A Beatles record – Adam’s favorite band of all time

A signed poster of another band Adam liked back in the day

My old license plate from the car I drove across country a little over three years ago (letters blocked out)

There are still quite a bit of blank spaces and the wall is pretty big, so we plan to add to it as we can. For now, I love that this wall is a representation of us, regardless of the mixed media types, and that it fully captures the creative and colorful vibe we’ve been trying to convey in our office for a long time.

Most of all, I love that this map is a fun and beautiful cartographic representation of San Diego. Adam and I plan to move back to New England in the coming years. Life in San Diego is wonderful but New England, full of its cold weather and sarcasm, will always be home. This print will always be representative of our beginnings and my time in America’s Finest City, and we can take it with us wherever we go.

Disclosure: I received this product for free in exchange for an honest review on my blog. All opinions are my own.

On a whim (or actually because Adam’s friend is coming to visit this weekend and we still had nothing on our walls), I decided it would be a great idea to make my own painting, considering I’m so artistic (I’m not).

I did a little googling and decided on this idea (their tutorial is very helpful), so after a trip to the dog park, I stopped at Michaels and got everything I needed for this project. PS – Michaels is having a huge sale on canvases right now…like I got a pack of 7 canvases for $9.99.

I got home, and laid everything out, and began painting.

I bought the canvases, four colors of acrylic paint (red, yellow, blue and white), a palette, and some paint brushes (which ended up being the worst brushes I’ve ever used because they kept “shedding” onto my beautiful artwork…either that, or I’m just incompetent, which is probably more likely).

Painting #1 done.Put your tape in a pattern (like above).Also, check out that creepin’ dog in the background.Paint where the tape is not covering.Peel off paint and put on display.Also, become a fan of the Red Sox.Or a different pattern and different paint.Admire.

I swear it’s super easy and it’s a lot of fun to just play around. All of the materials I bought ended up being around $25, so I didn’t really care how it all turned out and with my low expectations, I was actually pleasantly surprised at how much I like everything.

So that, my friends, is how you can create some artwork all on your own.